Vedanta Resources Delists from London Stock Exchange Months After 13 Shot Dead by Police at Copper Plant Protest in India

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A London-based mining company accused of extensive human rights abuse and environmental damage in India has delisted from the London Stock Exchange amidst concerns it is seeking to escape public scrutiny.

Vedanta Resources Plc delisted from the London market on Monday amidst strong accusations by protesters that the company was โ€œfleeingโ€ the stock exchange without being held accountable by the regulatory authorities for โ€œcorporate massacresโ€ .

Vedanta made headlines earlier this year after 13 protesters demanding the shutdown of Indiaโ€™s second largest copper plant in the southern state of Tamil Nadu were shot dead by police and dozens were injured.

Police opened fire on the crowd of unarmed protesters who demanded the closure of the plant citing environmental concerns including pollution of groundwater and the threat to the local fisheries.

At the time, Vedantaโ€™s chairman and main shareholder, controversial billionaire Anil Agarwal, made a personal address to the people of Tamil Nadu in which he said being โ€œvery sadโ€ to hear about the deadly incident, which he called โ€œunfortunateโ€.

State officials subsequently announced the permanent closure of the plant.

Following the incident, campaigners called on the UK regulatory authorities to investigate allegations Vedanta was complicit in the police opening fire and demanded it be delisted from the London Stock Exchange (LSE).

Indiaโ€™s state-funded National Human Rights Commission said it was carrying out its own probe into the events. The state government of Tamil Nadu also appointed judge Aruna Jagadeesan as a one-person commission to investigate the killings. Jagadeesan is reported by the Indian press as a judge known for her controversial judgements.

Just over a month after the deadly protests, Vedanta announced its possible delisting from the LSE following a cash offer by Volcan Investments, a holding company registered in the Bahamas and controlled by Agarwal.

In a statement published this week, Vedanta confirmed its delisting following a successful buyout of the companyโ€™s shares by Volcan Investments.

Miriam Rose, from the UK-based campaign group Foil Vedanta, told DeSmog, that while protesters were celebrating the delisting of Vedanta because it โ€œcurtailed its corporate ambitionโ€, she suggested the company was leaving the LSE to avoid further scrutiny.

โ€œThey are jumping before they are being pushed,โ€ she said. โ€œVedanta should not be allowed to simply escape London without being investigated as a London-based company. Instead, they are being allowed to delist and start again with a clean slate.โ€

Repeated calls for investigation

Campaigners protested outside the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and Vedantaโ€™s annual general meeting (AGM) in London on Monday demanding the company be investigated over the deadly protests in Tamil Nadu.

Fatima Babu, from the Anti Sterlite Peopleโ€™s Movement, one of the campaign groups attending the companyโ€™s AGM protest, said: โ€œThe people of Thoothukudi in Tamil Nadu are still reeling from the massacre of innocent women, men and children in May, which was carried out in the name of protecting Vedantaโ€™s industry from the people whom it has polluted for so many years.

โ€œThe Tamil Nadu, Indian and British governmentโ€™s must all take responsibility for the lawlessness and disproportionate power wielded by Vedanta, which led to this tragic event.โ€

Samarendra Das, from Foil Vedanta, who wrote a report delivered to the FCA which accused Vedanta of โ€œcorporate massacreโ€, accused Agarwal of โ€œbeing so desperate to avoid publicโ€ that he failed to attend Vedantaโ€™s AGM.

โ€œWe cannot let him and his board escape accountability and justice in the UK, under whose jurisdiction they have committed widespread financial, human rights and environmental crimes,โ€ she said, urging the FCA and the City of London to initiate proceedings against the company or risked being โ€œcomplicit in enabling and mitigating these abusesโ€.

Neither the FCA nor Vedanta responded to DeSmog UKโ€™s requests for comment.  But Vedanta Resourcesโ€™ chairman Agarwal has previously denied any links between the companyโ€™s delisting and the backlash against the deadly mass protests which took place in Tamil Nadu in May.

Agarwal previously told India Today that delisting Vedanta from the LSE would help simplify the Vedanta Groupโ€™s corporate structure and that the โ€œmaturity of the Indian capital marketsโ€ makes a seperate London listing โ€œno longer necessary to achieve the groupโ€™s strategic objectivesโ€.

Lack of corporate regulation

But Foil Vedantaโ€™s Rose said the case reflected a systematic failure of the City of Londonโ€™s regulatory authorities to investigate allegations of corporate wrongdoing.

โ€œLondon is known as the money-laundering capital of the world. But it is also a capital for criminal companies using the Cityโ€™s reputation to boost their credentials,โ€ she said.

โ€œBritish finance is allowing companies to commit crimes abroad without being investigated for those crimes at home. This is a systematic problem of the total lack of regulation on the London Stock Exchange.โ€

Rose added that British courts are currently considering the eligibility of a group of claimants from Zambia, who are suing Vedanta and its local subsidiary KCM for extensive pollution from the Nchanga copper mine, to have their case against the parent company heard in the UK.

She told DeSmog UKโ€™s that Vedantaโ€™s lawyers have warned that allowing this case to take place under British jurisdiction would โ€œopen the floodgatesโ€ to claimants against British listed companies.

She argued that while profits from mining flow freely into the City of London, victims of the liabilities they create have no recourse to justice in the UK.

Image Credit: Protestors outside Vedanta Resourcesโ€™ AGM in London/Foil Vedanta

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